Youth prisons 'still broken'

Friday

Apr 25, 2008 at 12:01 AM

OAKLAND - With few exceptions, California's youth prisons, including one near Stockton, remain broken, a nationally recognized specialist in juvenile justice testified Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

Scott Smith

OAKLAND - With few exceptions, California's youth prisons, including one near Stockton, remain broken, a nationally recognized specialist in juvenile justice testified Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

"I think there have been some improvements," said Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. "I would agree the system is still broken."

Krisberg testified for the Prison Law Office, which seeks to put reforms of the state's Division of Juvenile Justice under a court-ordered receiver. If granted, the receiver would take over control of ongoing efforts to reform the youth prison system.

The hearings come three years after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 visited the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility near Stockton to settle a lawsuit filed by the Prison Law Office, alleging inhuman and illegal conditions in the state's youth prisons.

The settlement launched massive reform efforts.

Prison Law Office attorneys Donald Specter and Sara Norman are asking Superior Court Judge Jon S. Tigar to order the receiver, a move state correctional officials believe is not necessary because the system is starting to turn around.

Krisberg testified that violence continues to run high, and youth lockups like Chad operate on an adult prison mentality, which is not a sign of a shift from a penal system to one that rehabilitates troubled youths.

On a recent visit to Chad, Krisberg said he talked to wards who wore shackles and orange jumpsuits imprinted with the words "CDCR Prisoner." At Chino's Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility, staffers on a crisis intervention team have been fitted with anti-stab vests.

At many youth prisons, staffers continue to carry pepper spray, and they wear prison guard uniforms, something one wouldn't see in similar, more advanced youth lockups in Missouri, Georgia and Arizona, he said.

California's recidivism rate for juvenile offenders remains at 75 percent or 80 percent - the highest in the nation, Krisberg said. Wards aren't prepared to leave when their time is up, he said.

"Would you say the environment is conducive to the goal of rehabilitation?" Specter asked.

"Not currently, no," Krisberg responded.

Citing some progress, Krisberg said wards aren't housed in living units labeled with their gang denomination as they were three years ago. This former practice forced wards to join gangs if they weren't already affiliated with one, he said.

And wards are now housed in small groups with a higher number of staffers around them, which Krisberg said is a sign of progress.

Bernard Warner, chief of the state's Division of Juvenile Justice, said outside the courtroom that he feels progress is coming and a receiver is not necessary.

Warner said his experts, who testified earlier in the week, show different results, and they explained to Tigar the complex nature of undergoing massive reform.

According to his statistics, the violence at six of eight youth prisons is lower than the national average. The Division of Juvenile Justice has trained nearly 700 staffers on motivational approaches, making it the largest training effort in the nation, Warner said.

"It takes time and money to reform a system," Warner said, arguing that there is no need for a court-ordered receiver. "We never said it would be fixed in two years."

Tigar, who said he has visited several California youth prisons, asked attorneys to suggest some books on juvenile justice to inform his decision.